Capital Cities and Academic Institutions Bring Experience and Knowledge to Leading Network of Local and Regional Administrations
Three-Year, European Union-Co-Funded Project to Produce New Metrics, Best Practices, Policy Recommendations, and High-Level Debate
(BRUSSELS, Belgium – 03 January 2021) – Helsinki, Ljubljana, Madrid, and the IE Center for C-Centricity (Spain) become the latest partners to join the 14-city UserCentriCities Network – a high-level collaboration to exchange experience, best-practice, and cutting-edge insight into online government service delivery in the post-pandemic world.
Says Gildo Seisdedos, director of IE Center for C-Centricity: “Citizen-centricity is crucial for designing future-proof digital services. But simply copying the principles of customer-centricity practices from the private sector doesn’t work for local and regional public administrations. At the IE Center for C-Centricity we are very interested in researching the similarities between the private and public sectors and extracting useful learnings that would benefit both. The UserCentriCities network is the perfect platform to do this and we are delighted to join. ”
Adds Dorthe Nielsen, executive director of Eurocities, a network of 200 European cities which works to unite urban ambitions with European Union policies on the green, just, and digital transformation: “The UserCentriCities project was conceived as a grand experiment: what are the best in class doing? And how could we learn from their experience? We are delighted to see so many leading cities join. Helsinki, Ljubljana, and Madrid are important cities with crucial stories to tell. We look forward to working with them to dive even deeper on this cutting-edge topic.”
Adds Chrysoula Mitta, associate director at the Lisbon Council, a Brussels-based think tank, which, along with VTT Technical Research Centre in Finland, serves as one of two think-tank partners on the initiative: “Effective public services have been essential in the pandemic, and the digital government is a major priority in the recovery and resilience plans, which earmark €144 billion for digital spending. We need to ensure that this unprecedented investment will result in concrete benefits for citizens. This initiative will help us understand the cutting edge of online service delivery. What are the top digital cities doing? How are they doing it? And how can we all do it better and learn from each other?”
Founded in 2020, the UserCentriCities network is rapidly expanding with the addition of more cities and regions, reinforcing the need for international cooperation between municipalities on designing and delivering “user-centric” digital services.
About UserCentriCities
| UserCentriCities is an 18-partner consortium co-financed by the European Union. The project will provide metrics, a support toolkit, and policy debates for driving digital government at the local level. The consortium includes the Lisbon Council, VTT Technical Research Centre (Finland), Eurocities, 14 leading cities and regions (Barcelona, Espoo, Glasgow, Gothenburg, Helsinki, Lisbon, Ljubljana, Madrid, Milan, Murcia, Porto, Rotterdam, and Tallinn and as well as Emilia Romagna) and the Center for C-Centricity at IE University. Visit https://www.usercentricities.eu/. |
About the Lisbon Council
The Lisbon Council for Economic Competitiveness and Social Renewal Labs is a Brussels-based think tank and policy network. Established in 2003 in Belgium as a non-profit, non-partisan association, the group is dedicated to making a positive contribution through cutting-edge research and by engaging politicians and the public at large in a constructive exchange about the economic and social challenges of the 21st century. Its website is www.lisboncouncil.net.
The UserCentriCities project is co-financed by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101004603